Use of packet-switched connections for transmitting synchronous communications, such as voice calls, and data across telecommunication networks is increasing. Such packet-switched connections allow for greater speed and throughput, while making packet-switched data from other networks, such as the Internet, more readily available. Most telecommunication networks, however, still utilize access networks that provide circuit-switched connections, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks, due to the substantial infrastructure investment needed to expand packet-switched access networks. Such circuit-switched access networks may provide comparable or, at times, better speed and quality than packet-switched access networks for some types of data, including synchronous communications.
Packet-switched access networks, due to their sparsity and data-transmission capabilities, are often congested, providing slow data services and poor quality synchronous communications. These packet-switched access networks are often in proximity to a circuit-switched access network or, as with Evolved High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) access networks, include the capability of using both packet-switched and circuit-switched connections. Because devices are configured to use the packet-switched access networks when they are available, however, these circuit-switched access networks are often underutilized.
One technique for switching from a packet-switched connection to a circuit-switched connection involves the use of a platform-level technology called single radio voice call continuity (SR-VCC). SR-VCC determines when a packet-switched access network is associated with a diminished signal and requests that the telecommunication network transition a voice call from a packet-switched connection to a circuit-switched connection. SR-VCC is only able to account for diminished signals, however, and not for poor quality of the voice calls themselves. Also, SR-VCC implements detection of diminished signals entirely on telecommunication devices; the telecommunication network does not participate in such detection.